


The creature

by richmahogany



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: Gen, a cute animal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 05:37:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11178174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richmahogany/pseuds/richmahogany
Summary: Seven-year-old Stephen Maturin encounters a curious creature in the Pyrenees.





	The creature

They were arguing about him again. Stephen couldn’t understand everything they were saying – they were in the next room, and although he was picking up the Catalan tongue very quickly, he had only had a few days to acquire the meanest understanding of it. Still, it was clear what they were talking about. It was the same issue they had fought over ever since they left Ireland.  
Stephen had spent his life so far with his father’s family. He had been very happy there, so he couldn’t understand why, shortly after his seventh birthday, these two men had appeared to carry him away to Catalonia. They were his Uncle Pau and his Uncle Joan – well, they were not really his uncles, but they were members of his mother’s family, which had suddenly decided to take charge of him. Nobody had given him any reasons, but Stephen knew that as an orphan dependant on his extended family he had to comply with whatever decisions his elders took about his fate. He had packed his things, said good-bye to his loved ones, and left with his new uncles.  
His uncles spoke some English, and that’s how they talked to him, but they would speak Catalan when talking between themselves. They had started to teach him some of their language, though, and had given him a book so he could teach himself. As soon as Stephen started to understand some of what his uncles were saying, it became clear that his Catalan family were not unanimous in the desire to take him into their care. Uncle Pau took his side, arguing that he was part of the family, and that several relatives as well as Stephen’s godfather – he hadn’t known he had one until now – wanted him with them. Uncle Joan on the other hand seemed to have taken an instant dislike to Stephen, criticising his Irish ways, his small, thin, pale appearance (that much was true), his supposed sickliness (that was definitely untrue), and his strangeness (Stephen didn’t know what he meant, but he heard him say several times that “there’s something strange about this child”). And soon he also heard him say that word, the one he recognised immediately despite the foreign language, the one that he had heard first whispered behind his back when he was four and innocently enquired what it meant.  
Bastard.  
He hadn’t understood the explanation then, and he still didn’t quite understand it, but it had become clear to him that it was something bad, something shameful, something which in some people’s eyes diminished his worth as a person.  
Uncle Joan raised his voice just now, and there it was again, that word.  
“If they don’t want me,” thought Stephen bitterly, “why are they taking me away from those that do?”  
Suddenly he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to get out of here. Quietly he opened the door, crept down the stairs and out of the house.  
The sun had almost set, and although the day had been very warm, there was now a chill in the air. Stephen, who wasn’t wearing a coat, shivered slightly, but he didn’t turn back. Instead he walked down the street towards the small stream which flowed through the village.  
This morning they had crossed the border into Spain, travelling over perilous mountain passes and through tiny villages clinging to the slopes. Stephen had enjoyed most of the journey so far, despite his uncles’ constant bickering and his homesickness. There was so much to see, unfamiliar landscapes, trees, plants, birds and animals. There was never any time to see them properly, though. He was carried past everything at great speed. Once he had asked for the coach to be stopped so he could get a better look at a curious bird he had spotted, but this had been immediately denied, and he hadn’t asked again.  
They had reached this small mountain village just in time to seek accommodation for the night. There was no inn, but the main man of the village, who also owned the biggest house, had put them up.  
Stephen followed the course of the shallow stream, which sprang over rocks and pebbles with a pleasant tinkle. Soon he had left the last house of the village behind, and dense vegetation had sprung up on both sides of the water. Here the stream curved and widened slightly, creating a very small bay where the water was still and reeds grew.  
“What might live among those reeds?” Stephen wondered. Birds, surely, little warblers that built their nests between the swaying stalks. Moorhens, which nested just above the water. Maybe even a bittern. How he would love to see a bittern’s nest! The sun had just dipped below the horizon, but there was still enough light to see. Stephen looked at the stream. It was very shallow, it would be easy enough to wade towards the reeds for a closer look. He unbuckled his breeches, took off his shoes and stockings and stepped into the water.  
It was very cold and slightly deeper than he had thought. The bottoms of his trouser legs, which were dangling still unbuckled below his knees, were soaked through in seconds, but Stephen hardly noticed it. He was concentrating on advancing very carefully and slowly towards the reed bed, so as not to disturb anything sitting in it.  
There! He heard a tiny splash and froze. Some small animal had just jumped into the water. But where was it? He strained his eyes, but couldn’t see anything. Suddenly there was another splash behind him. He turned and saw, sitting on top of a small boulder which protruded from the water, a creature the likes of which he had never seen before. It was a small, furry animal, larger than a mouse – a rat, maybe, but no, it didn’t look like a rat at all. It had a long, naked tail and large hind feet. Its nose was very long and mobile, and Stephen could clearly see the nostrils at the end. In its front paws it held something, a shrimp perhaps, which it was nibbling rapidly. In less than a minute it had finished its meal and jumped into the water again. Stephen tried to follow it with his eyes, but it was obviously swimming under water, and it was now too dark to see below the surface. Just when he felt a pang of disappointment at the creature’s disappearance, there it was again, climbing onto the small boulder it had occupied before. It shook itself and started to groom its fur, combing it with its long claws. It was only about three feet away from Stephen, and he could clearly see the whiskers on that long, twitching nose, and that its hind feet were webbed. Suddenly the animal stilled. Stephen held his breath. Had it noticed him? Would it flee again? Then he realised that the animal was looking at him. Its eyes were so small that he couldn’t really make them out, but there was no mistake. For a few seconds they stared at each other. Then the creature returned calmly to its grooming. It must have noticed Stephen, but had clearly decided that he was no threat and resumed its activities unconcerned. Stephen couldn’t take his eyes off it. He was completely enchanted. His legs were getting numb in the cold water, and a slight breeze had sprung up that blew strands of hair across his face, but he didn’t notice. All he saw and heard was this little animal whose name he didn’t know.  
He cried out in surprise and pain as he was yanked out of the stream by his arm and a hand was applied sharply to his cheeks. He didn’t understand much of the torrent of Catalan that bore down on him, but he caught the meaning nonetheless. He was being scolded for wandering off, for being out after dark and for ruining his breeches. Stephen turned his head to look at the boulder in the stream, but of course the creature had fled. In any case, he doubted that pointing it out would have mollified his uncle in the slightest. So he just hung his head and kept his mouth shut. He was told to collect his shoes and stockings, and Uncle Joan pushed and shoved him all the way back to their quarters. When they arrived, Stephen was sent straight to bed, while his uncles fought another round in their eternal argument. Stephen closed his eyes and covered his ears with the bedclothes. In his mind, he was back at the stream, watching the little animal which seemed to look back at him with the same friendly curiosity he felt towards it. Wherever it was they were taking him, he hoped there were books, so he could find out the creature’s name and nature. He also hoped that he would see such an animal again. And with that thought in his mind he fell asleep.  
They continued their journey the next morning, and as the coach rumbled past the stream, Stephen looked out of the window and remembered last night. He was still confused as to why they were making this journey at all, he missed his home and his family in Ireland, and he was apprehensive about meeting his new family in this strange country. But a country that harboured such enchanting creatures couldn’t be all bad, he thought. Maybe there was something to look forward to after all.


End file.
